By definition retirement planning is saving one part of your income in order to provide yourself a steady income post retirement. How simple can that be? In Canada this is about all it takes to ensure that you have a secure and dignified senior age life as your savings would supplement the Government's assistance under the CPPOAS or the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security.

The Necessity Of The Canadian Retirement Planning

Many people would argue that today's generation is much more finance savvy that the one or two generations ago and hence, there is no need to create a special fund in Canada for saving for post retirement days. However, there is a mixed response on this topic. One school of thought is for the Canadian retirement planning to be formalized in a Government run retirement plan with fixed rules and regulations and even a minimum compulsory saving scheme.
On the other hand it is argued that since there is enough awareness generated, and the today's generation is more capable to understand and plan for their retirement life, there should be no interference from Government on Canadian retirement planning. Each person should know how much they could put aside and how much they could look forward to when they reach their post retirement period voluntarily.

To Be Or Not To Be - The Fate Of The Canadian Retirement Planning

Fortunately the Government already has a plan that assures a minimum income to its senior citizens; however, in most cases such assistance is not actually sufficient to cover all the needs of the person. Therefore, it is imperative that there are additional funds to compensate for the gap. It is good to know that the Government has plenty of plans that enhance the long term personal savings of a person even though it does not come directly under the Canadian retirement planning.

Special plans for retirement would more than anything else enhance the knowledge that you need to save for your old age. This is one thing that even the savviest of the younger generation seem to ignore - the fact that everyone would be old one day and have less capacity to earn and take care of oneself financially.

Financial independence is the first thing needed for a senior person to live in dignity and this can happen only when you start to save early in life. The Canadian retirement planning should be able to instill this need into the minds of all young and able bodied people, so their senior years would be carefree for themselves and for the Government.